Consolidated revenue reached NT$16.72 billion (US$561 million) last month, a 12.4 percent increase from NT$14.87 billion a year ago, the Greater Kaohsiung-based company said in a stock exchange filing.

However, last month’s figure represented a 2.5 percent decline from NT$17.15 billion the previous month.

ASE told investors on April 26 that it expected its packaging and testing revenue for this quarter to increase by between 11 percent and 14 percent from last quarter, driven by the communications sector, while sales from its electronics manufacturing services unit would drop by 8 percent sequentially amid clients’ continued inventory adjustments.

Other semiconductor companies in the field of back-end packaging and testing — such as Taiwan’s Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), Amkor Technology Inc of the US and STATS ChipPac Ltd from Singapore — have all recently provided upbeat forecasts for this quarter, amid growing demand for chips used in smartphones and the declining price of gold that could support a margin uptrend through the second half of the year.

Analysts said ASE would also benefit from Qualcomm Inc’s new Snapdragon 800 processor and MediaTek Inc’s (聯發科) new MT6572 chip production ramp-up in the second or third quarter.

“We expected the product [Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800] to create strong demand for high-end smartphones in the global market during the second half of 2013, and we believe the MT6572 will be very attractive for entry-level smartphone makers,” Carlos Peng (彭國維), an analyst at Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧), said in a note.

From January to last month, ASE’s accumulated revenue totaled NT$64.91 billion, an increase of 11.97 percent from NT$57.97 billion last year, the company said in the filing.

Meanwhile, SPIL released its revenue figures for last month on Monday, showing increases of 3.49 percent year-on-year and 13.2 percent month-on-month to NT$5.62 billion, the highest since October last year.

In the first four months of this year, total revenue dropped 5.4 percent from last year to NT$19.44 billion, according to a stock exchange filing.